The petition to President Obama reads:“Thank you for listening to the activists who have been urging you to reject Keystone XL, and start keeping fossil fuels in the ground. We are all depending on you to continue showing leadership on climate, for the sake of our country and the world.”

Add your name:

Dear Elise,

Yesterday, we made history when President Obama rejected Keystone XL. Not only did he reject it, he did so acknowledging that “we’re going to have to keep some fossil fuels in the ground.”

This is a monumental shift from President Obama and his “all of the above” energy strategy. And it is a monumental victory over an oil industry whose power to imperil all of us in the pursuit of greed has been unchecked for far too long.

President Obama signed the decision, but it was grassroots activism and organizing that made it happen. Historic, sustained, relentless, nationwide, diverse, fearless, deeply committed activism, of the kind we haven’t seen in a generation.

CREDO is especially proud of the Keystone XL Pledge of Resistance — launched at a key moment in March of 2013, when we were losing this fight. Nearly 100,000 of you committed to engage in civil disobedience if necessary to stop Keystone XL. With our friends at Rainforest Action Network and the Other 98%, we organized the biggest threat of mass civil disobedience in our generation. CREDO’s CEO met with President Obama and told him face-to-face about the Pledge of Resistance. Three months later, the President announced the climate test for Keystone XL at his Georgetown climate speech, and the tide began turning.

It is stunning to consider how far we have come. What we have accomplished together in the most urgent fight we face, against one of the most powerful forces in the world.

From the crushing failure of the climate bill in 2009, to when “everyone” said Keystone XL approval was inevitable in 2011, to President Obama proudly approving the southern portion of the pipeline in 2012.

Today is an enormous victory for the entire progressive and climate justice movement. CREDO contributed one of the largest organizing efforts in our 30 year history, and tremendously grateful to each of you who stood with us. (We’ve included some of the highlights in the infographic below.)

Stopping Keystone XL is not enough. But it is victories like this that show a clean energy future is within reach, if we keep working for it.

There is far more to say than can be expressed in a single email, so much to be learned from this victory to be applied to the work ahead.